Chocolate Hazelnut Granola Bars

These Chocolate Hazelnut Granola Bars combine the perfect natural sweetness of dates and maple syrup with the textural crunch from the oven baked oats and toasted hazelnuts. Together these simple ingredients come together to form a perfect afternoon (or even a breakfast bite!).

I’ve been looking for an afternoon snack for the kids that is filling, tasty, sweet and looks like it would be really naughty (but actually isn’t!). These granola bars fit the bill perfectly!

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What’s in these Chocolate Hazelnut Granola Bars?

With just a handful of ingredients you can have yourself a really delicious snack. They pack in the healthy fats with the peanut butter and hazelnuts while keeping you full for a long time after from the rolled oats.

Rolled oats: Now I toasted my oats tossed in coconut oil and maple syrup as we love the crunch and taste that comes with the toasted oats. Saying that, toasting isn’t vital. If you prefer a softer bite to the bar, then just add them in as they are.

Hazelnuts: An essential ingredient to these bars. Chocolate and hazelnut... well they make a perfect combination of flavours (think nutella!)

Maple Syrup: The natural sweetener of the bar. (How good is the taste of maple syrup? I just looooove it!)

Cocoa Powder: These aren’t called chocolate hazelnut granola bars for nothing. The cocoa brings in the chocolate look with the added health benefits that a small amount adds to the bars. A ¼ cup between 10 bars- not much at all!

Chocolate chips: Ok well I wanted to add a little bit of naughty into these bars, and dark chocolate is as good a naughty as you can get. Add half into the mix and drizzle the rest on top. Or drizzle the whole lot on the top to create a layer. Either way the bitter notes of the dark chocolate offsets the sweetness perfectly.

Dates: when blended with the other ingredients the dates become the binder of these bars, that along with the maple syrup, hold the bars together. They’re nicknamed ‘nature’s candy’ and rightly so as they impart a beautiful sweetness

Peanut Butter: Add to the nutty tart of the bars but also helps bind them together. I’ve specified smooth peanut butter in my recipe (as it’s my favourite) but you can use any type of nut butter like almond or cashew if you like

Coconut oil: Added to the oats whilst toasting to allow them to crisper up

Salt: With anything sweet I always add a good pinch of salt to the majority of my desserts as its addition naturally enhances the natural flavours of the other ingredients.

Water: The water is added to the date and nut paste just to relax it and make it smoother which in turn aids in mixing in the oats and hazelnuts

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Reasons to eat these delicious bars?

Where do I begin. Let me help you with some of my reasons why you should make these:

• Only 7 ingredients to perfection! (Let’s not count salt and water!)

• No bake ... Is that a push?! Toasting the oats and hazelnuts is optional. But a bonus is that there’s no baking at the end

• Super filling. Those oats work their magic and keep you full for ages

• Incredibly tasty. Think Ferrero Rocher...chocolate and hazelnut are a brilliant and tasty combination

I could go on and on, but you get my drift...these are delicious and I truly hope that you make them.

For more inspiration check out these (maybe not so healthy) recipes!

Browned Butter White Chocolate Blondies

Chocolate Raspberry Crumble Bars